Chapter 105: You Are Unworthy ③
“Alright, you go ahead and be busy!” Nie Qiu nodded and picked up the broom from the ground.
Zhang Qitian glanced at her with concern, then nodded and turned to leave, returning to his stall to tend to it.
Nie Qiu lifted the plastic film, and a pungent, fishy smell assaulted her. White objects were wriggling on the black marble-patterned tiled vegetable stand. Nie Qiu pinched her nose and took a step back, incredulous. The vegetable stand was infested with maggots!
Should she… clean it?
She didn’t consider herself a neat freak, but looking at the wriggling white objects made her feel nauseous. Holding the plastic film, Nie Qiu couldn’t bear to look any longer. She held the film away from her and walked towards the garbage dump behind the vegetable market.
She had a vivid impression of the garbage dump. To test the market, she had brought the vegetables in here. Since it was morning, the cleaners might have already cleared it yesterday. The garbage dump this morning wasn’t as terrifying or smelly as she remembered, but there was still a pungent odor.
Nie Qiu threw the plastic film into the garbage dump, then returned to the vegetable stand. After a long period of mental preparation, she began to sweep. Watching the white maggots roll as she swept them, their plump white bodies covered in dust and wriggling, Nie Qiu couldn’t take it anymore. She tightly closed her eyes. It seemed disinfection alone wouldn’t be enough. She didn’t know how many unknown bacteria and insects were hidden here. She needed to buy insecticide and the like to deal with it first, then rinse it before disinfecting.
Before long, Nie Aifang returned, handing Nie Qiu an apron and taking over the work from her. Nie Qiu followed Nie Aifang, assisting her and relaying what Zhang Qitian had told her about how to clean. The mother and daughter worked from 6:30 AM to 3:00 PM, not even having lunch.
Seeing the spotlessly clean vegetable stand, which even gleamed, Nie Qiu smiled with relief. The sense of accomplishment was self-evident. It wasn’t easy to clean such a dirty and messy place to this extent.
For such a small area, it had taken so much time. Nie Aifang also felt a little ashamed, but it was finally done.
Just as they finished cleaning, a takeout delivery guy walked over. He glanced at the vegetable stand number and handed two food containers to Nie Aifang. “You’re the ones tending this vegetable stand, right? Brother Zhang eats at our shop and asked me to bring you this food.”
Nie Aifang accepted it, flattered. “Thank you, sorry to trouble you for the trip.”
“No problem, I’ll be going then. Enjoy your meal,” the delivery guy said with a smile, nodding at Nie Aifang and Nie Qiu before turning to leave.
Only then did Nie Qiu realize that there were very few people in the vegetable market at this time. There were three peak periods for selling and buying vegetables: first, before lunch, around 8 AM to 11 AM, when more people came to buy; second, before dinner, between 4 PM and 5:30 PM; and third, during the commute home, around 6 PM to 7 PM, when most office workers chose to buy their groceries.
They had just finished cleaning around 3 PM. Zhang Qitian might have gone to eat around this time, so he asked someone to bring them food. She felt grateful. They had been busy for so long, and she hadn’t felt it while working, but as soon as she relaxed, she felt ravenous.
Nie Aifang felt the same. She handed one of the food containers to Nie Qiu. “Qiu Qiu, I’m sorry, I completely forgot to take you to eat.”
Nie Qiu smiled and took it. She stood with Nie Aifang at the exit of the vegetable stand, washed their hands under the installed water pipe, and then squatted inside the vegetable stand to eat. Why were they squatting? Because they hadn’t bought any stools yet!
Nie Qiu thought about the setup in Zhang Qitian’s vegetable stand and knew they would need two stools, an electronic scale, nails for hanging plastic bags, and various tools for cutting vegetables. Of course, a back basket was also essential. Zhang Qitian had already helped her so much. She knew a large part of it was because she had said she would only supply his family, but she still felt indebted to Zhang Qitian. She couldn’t possibly ask Zhang Qitian to pay for these tools and equipment.
Nie Qiu ate and thought, ate and thought, unable to figure out how to get money to handle these matters. She only had a little over a hundred yuan on her. She had originally planned to rent a very small residential area warehouse. She had already looked online for rent, location, and area conditions. The small warehouse was only two meters high and five meters wide. It was located at a corner of the residential area’s stairs. Due to the building’s design, there was a large empty space at that corner, which was originally intended to be a lounge for the residential area’s guard. However, after the residential area built a main gate, the guard room was moved to the main gate. If she could rent that small space, she could take vegetables out of her space and put them there, and Zhang Qitian and Nie Aifang could transport goods directly from there.
But if she rented it, she wouldn’t have money to buy all these miscellaneous items. Finishing the last bite of her meal, Nie Qiu stood up. “Mom, I want to go play at my classmate’s house this afternoon.”
Nie Aifang had also finished eating and took the food container from Nie Qiu’s hand. “Have you finished your homework?” Seeing Nie Qiu nod with a smile, Nie Aifang said, “Okay, remember to come home early.”
“Mom, what are you doing now?” Nie Qiu asked.
Nie Aifang smiled. “I’m going to talk to Qitian later to see if he can give me the afternoon off. I need to remove the welded oil tank from the tricycle so I can use it to transport vegetables tomorrow.”
Nie Qiu was stunned for a moment, then nodded with a smile and said goodbye to Nie Aifang. Nie Aifang was looking forward to starting work tomorrow and felt she had to earn some money today no matter what. But… besides the knowledge in her head, all she had was the vegetables in the necklace at home.
She remembered that in her previous life, there was a supermarket in the residential area where she lived. Every day, vegetable vendors sold vegetables behind the supermarket. She wanted to try her luck there. Most of the vegetables in the supermarket were bought from these vendors, then the yellowed and rotten parts were trimmed, sprinkled with water, and sold at a high price in the supermarket.
Since she would be using a vegetable basket anyway, before leaving the vegetable market, Nie Qiu bought a large vegetable basket at the market entrance. Knowing Nie Aifang would be back, Nie Qiu ran home and, with the help of the space, took out a basket of fresh vegetables.
Selling only this once… it shouldn’t be a breach of contract, right? Besides… their contract hadn’t been signed yet, had it?
Nie Qiu knew she should abide by her verbal promise, but this time it was unavoidable. She had to sell the vegetables. To buy an electronic scale, small items, and rent a small warehouse, she needed at least two to three hundred yuan.
After leaving the residential area where she rented, Nie Aifang hadn’t returned yet. Nie Qiu, carrying her basket, got on the bus and paid two yuan before walking inside. The driver started the bus and called out to Nie Qiu, “Little girl, pay another yuan.”
Nie Qiu was taken aback. “Didn’t it say two yuan?”
